Road contruction is about to begin on Grand River Avenue and Michigan Avenue in March. / Greg DeRuiter/Lansing State Journal

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EAST LANSING — A $5.5 million state project spanning roughly four miles of Grand River Avenue from one end of East Lansing to the other and into Meridian Township is scheduled to start Monday.

The work — scheduled to be completed in early October — will include road resurfacing, signal upgrades and intersection improvements, as well as the addition of an 8-foot-wide pedestrian path on both sides of Grand River between Collingwood and Brookfield drives.

“This project will increase safety for both motorists and pedestrians, especially with the Michigan State University campus so close by," said MDOT Lansing TSC Manager Steve Palmer in a statement.

The work will affect, at various times, Grand River between Coolidge Road and Park Lake Road and Michigan Avenue from the western city limits to Grand River.

The bulk of the funding for the roughly $5.5 million project is coming from federal and state sources. Approximately $300,000 will come from the city, primarily for work on the pedestrian pathway.

Construction is expected to start first along Grand River between Coolidge Road and Michigan Avenue, and between Bogue Street and Park Lake Road, and on Michigan Avenue near Beal Street.

Crews are expected to set traffic control devices in place the week of March 4, with construction scheduled to start the following week.

At least one lane of traffic will always be open in each direction.

About 14,500 vehicles daily between Coolidge and Michigan, 27,500 between the Grand River/Michigan split and Hagadorn Road and 28,000 between Hagadorn and Park Lake.

The section of Grand River through downtown East Lansing — between Michigan and Bogue — will be the trickiest to pull off, requiring that crews wait until mid-May and the close of MSU’s spring semester.

Arend said that work will require all traffic to be routed to one side of the road or the other, with appropriate crossovers in use.

Bi-weekly public progress meetings are planned to discuss the project, Arend said, with dates and times yet to be determined. Information on the meetings will be posted at www.michigan.gov/mdot.